Welcome back to Gotham! The city’s own paragon of courage Kate Kane defends her city as Batwoman, but her life has been difficult. Not only does she have to try and stop her evil twin, but she has to deal with the man responsible for making her the way she is. So don your cape, grab your emotionally significant birthstone necklace, and join us as we give you five thoughts on Batwoman season 1, episode 15 “Off With Her Head.”
1. A present from Alice.
“Off With Her Head” starts out strong with Batwoman saving a woman from a pervy would-be attacker before she’s called off by the Bat-signal, only to find a present from Alice, the unconscious body of Dr. Cartwright. After bringing in her father to help her interrogate her sister’s tormentor, a bigger question arises, why did Alice give the caterpillar to Batwoman?
During the course of the episode, Cartwright reveals more about the early years of Alice and also his recent plans involving mouse and killing who he thought was Alice. But once again, there seems to be no likely motivation for Alice to give such a generous present to her enemy. As the episode progresses it builds to an intense crescendo, proving that with Alice gifts might not be as open and shut as they seem. The interactions with Kate, Jacob, and Cartwright all have a good level of intensity, with Cartwright often feeling like he’s toying with his interrogators. But, perhaps Alice’s gift had another purpose, a continuous petition to prove that she is just a result of her upbringing, helping to rehabilitate her image in her twin’s eyes. In any case, her gift allowed for some good character work for Cartwright.
2. An unlikely partnership adds some levity.
During a particularly dark Batwoman, one full of a tragic backstory, emotional trauma, and pushing characters to their breaking point, the creators added some much-needed levity by teaming up Luke and Mary. Mary, who has all but figured out Kate’s secret at this point, brings Luke in on an investigation she has uncovered through her work in her secret clinic. Through the course of the episode, the two of them both snark their way around one another, with Mary continuing to heavily imply her knowledge and Luke desperately (and unconvincingly) hiding his boss’ secret identity.
While “Off With Her Head” doesn’t give Mary the satisfaction of finally revealing to Kate that she figured it out, it does provide a nice prelude to interactions to come. Part of me is frustrated that they are continuing to drag this particular story out. There are compelling reasons to bring Mary onto the team, and highlighting her interactions with Luke continues to add more justification to a strong list A particular highlight involves Luke trying desperately to get secondhand information from Mary when she’s giving Batwoman advice on how to stop a neck wound. Hopefully, this is the last week we’ll have to deal with Mary being excluded from the team, but this story helped to add some much needed comic relief to the episode.
3. Enter the Red Queen
The majority of “Off With Her Head” is a continued look at the creation of Alice, with the majority of focus being given to The Red Queen. The Red Queen is Mable Cartwright, August’s mother. She is a bitter and vindictive woman, concerned only about vanity and being pampered. Throughout the episode, we see The Red Queen berate and abuse Alice, hitting her for doing even the slightest thing wrong. According to Cartwright, while he might have started the process of Beth’s transition to Alice, it was Mable who stamped out the last little bits of hope and the girl had.
Debra Mooney does an excellent job of playing Mable, giving the role a quiet intensity. On the surface, Mable looks and acts relatively normal. She’s critical and a little vain, but when she starts acting monstrous, Mooney really ramps up the terror without necessarily changing anything about the performance. As you watch the episode, August’s mannerisms start to make sense, Mable seems like a woman obsessed with order and perfection. Beth is just another broken spirit to Mable’s quiet, monstrous nature.
Continued below4. The effective unknowing of the fear toxin realm.
At the end of “Grinning From Ear to Ear,” Alice was on the hunt to free Mouse from his father’s capture. What she was unaware of was the fact that she was playing into August’s hands, using fear toxin to turn his son against her. Mouse captures Alice, who he now believes ruined his family, and uses the toxin on her. This forces Alice to relive her worst moments with The Red Queen, including a burned beyond recognition version of the woman. But it’s, of course, more than that. Alice shifts between being a young girl and her contemporary self, she sees her father and sister betray her, watches her father attempt to murder her. Every sequence involving Alice is shrouded in misinformation, which really enhances the fact that she’s been influenced by the Scarecrow’s gas.
What makes it even better is when this effectively hides a twist. At one point Alice runs to the shed in a desperate search from cream for The Red Queen’s tea. She transitions from a child to an adult, looking for her tormentor’s treat. As she searches her eyes go to a locked freezer, Cartwright informing her that there is nothing she needs there. Out of context it just looks like the fear toxin run amok, but in context, it really was adult Alice in the shed. She returns only to find the freezer has her mother’s head. This revelation making her use Mable’s oxygen to burn her alive an kill her. It’s a case of being two steps ahead of the audience, making us think that the shift was simple the fear toxin, instead of giving us the information we need. It worked quite effectively and really helps to mess with our expectations.
5. Once again, Alice’s long game pays off
“Off With Her Head” begins with Kate and Beth’s Bat Mitzvah and their mother giving their birthstone necklaces, along with an explanation that red is the color of love, but also the color of passion, courage, and war. At some point, the girls will have to deal with all of them. After Cartwright reveals the final blow, that he kept their mother’s head in a freezer, giving his mother her matching earrings and potentially giving Mable her skin, Kate snaps. At the end of the episode, Kate violates the rule paramount to Batman and kills her enemy.
There’s no way of knowing, but it seems like once again, Kate played into an elaborate trap by Alice. Her twin proving that in many ways they were the same. Now Jacob has seen both of his daughters kill, and forcing Kate to see just a little of Alice in herself. It’s an intense ending, with Kate standing alone drinking straight from the bottle in a desperate attempt to calm her nerves and Alice offering to help her bury the body. Who knows where the series will go from here. But at this moment, Kate truly embraced the words of her mother, succumbing to the passion and war of her birthstone’s color.
So there we have it, Kate has violated Batman’s one rule and it’ll be interesting to see where the show goes from here with that knowledge. What do you think, will this cement her reputation as an irredeemable vigilante with the Crows? Sound off below!
